Automatic laundry dryers generally employ a horizontally oriented, front load rotatable dryer drum for tumbling laundry during a drying process in which air, typically heated air, is introduced into the drum. The tumbling allows for the laundry to be sufficiently exposed to the air flow and also reduces wrinkling. Conventional dryer drums contain baffles or vanes on the interior of the drum which aid in tumbling the laundry. During rotation of the dryer drum, the vanes contact the laundry and lift it to help ensure that the laundry is tumbled. Most dryer drums have vanes with linear configurations which are generally uniform in height along their length. Further, some dryer drums have also been proposed which include vanes with recesses or shaped configurations for different purposes. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 7,194,824 to Wang which discloses a stepped structure to prevent the clothes from remaining attached to the surface of the lifter without being released from the lifter at the top of the rotating drum. Also, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2007/0199207 of Oh et al. discloses baffles which are “crenellated” and include notches and recesses in the upper portions. U.S. Pat. No. 7,257,905 to Guinibert et al. discloses vanes which are sculpted to assist with even distribution of the laundry load during operation.
Aforementioned commonly owned copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/949,432 discloses a dryer drum vane with a unique configuration to enhance the tumbling and mixing action of the clothes during a drying cycle. The configuration of the vane includes complex surfaces having varying angles of inclination relative to the base of the vane. These complex surfaces allow the clothes to be moved axially during the tumbling which promotes mixing of the clothes. Further, the vane has grip elements along its surfaces and the grip elements vary according to the angle of inclination of the complex surface on which it is positioned (e.g. the grip elements may vary in height relative to the angle of inclination).
Aforementioned commonly owned copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/960,364 discloses a flow enhancing air duct and grill for laundry dryer. One aspect of the application is directed to positioning the air duct inlet and overlying grill within the depthwise extending cylindrical surface area of the bulkhead which defines the access port, instead of the conventional vertically oriented positioning of such elements.
There is room for improving the mixing capabilities of dryer vanes in order to more effectively dry clothes. For example, with known dryer vanes, laundry dryers may still be prone to harmonic tumbling of the load which leads to rolling and balling of the load. In addition, depending on the dryer configuration and the load characteristics, there may be a propensity for items of the laundry load (especially delicates) to become stuck on the exhaust air grill, thereby potentially reducing air flow and drying effectiveness. Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a dryer vane that can more effectively mix the clothes of a laundry load and facilitate removal of items adhered to the exhaust air grill of the dryer, to thereby permit more effective drying of the clothes.